Monday, 31 May 2010

Wash the rhubarb, dry and cut into about 1 inch pieces and place in the heavy bottom pan.

Peel the ginger, slice finely, cut into thin strips. Place in the pan together with the rhubarb.

Peel the oranges and cut the peel to thin strips, next place them in the pan. Squeeze the juice from both oranges into the pan, add the sugar and simmer over a low heat for about 60 minutes stirring gently. Most of the rhubarb pieces will disintegrate. This jam is quite runny.

Place hot jam into 6 x 200ml sterilised warmed jars, then place them upside down in an ovenproof dish and keep in the preheated oven (100C) for about 15 minutes.

Leave it to cool down in the open oven overnight and store in the dry, cool place.

It tastes good with homemade challah (chałka, plecionka in Polish), which I am going to show soon.

Friday, 28 May 2010

Buckwheat certainly deserves attention, because is very tasty and healthy. It is widely used in Poland, Russia and Ukraine. In my home it always is a great company for stews, either with meat or vegetarian ones.

I served this stew with buckwheat that I dry roasted before boiling. You do not have to roast it before boiling – I did it because in Poland the most popular is buckwheat which was already roasted. It has a nice brown colour and it taste better.

It is good to fry the buckwheat in little vegetable oil (lard or goose fat should be fine to) and add stock or water, bring to the boil and turn the heat down to a minimum level just to keep it warm until the liquid is absorbed. Allow 2 parts of liquid to one part of buckwheat.

I hope you like it, if not you can always serve this stew with any other wheat or potatoes.

Beef stew

Quite often I do not use any fat to fry the meat before adding to stew, but place beef into a boiling stock. It saves some calories and time. You can obviously fry the meet if you wish and then add the stock.

In a big pan boil the stock and add meat, onions and garlic. Cover and boil for few minutes. Next add beer, porcini mushrooms, salt and pepper. Cover and simmer for about 60 minutes or until the meat is tender.

For the last 10 minutes add bottom parts of asparagus, for last 5 minutes asparagus tops, peas and beans. Cover and simmer.

Meanwhile mix the corn starch with 3 tbsp of water and add to the pan, boil for further minute – it will thicken the sauce little bit.

I use bread machine to make the dough. I have placed all the ingredients in the machine and used “pizza” program (“dough” in those without extra “pizza” program). If not using the bread machine place all the ingredients in a big bowl and make the dough using your hands. Next leave the dough in a bowl, covered in draft free, warm place until it doubles in size.

Using a hand mixer beat the whites until not too stiff. In a separate bowl beat the egg yolks with sugar until pale, add flour and mix well. Add the sultanas together with rum (if there is any remaining) to the egg yolks and mix gently.

Next gently fold the egg whites into a mixture and make sure you not overwork it, because it should be light and fluffy.

Melt the butter in a pan then pour the egg mixture into the pan and fry it like an omelette over a low heat. After few minutes check with a spatula if the bottom is golden; if so, turn it upside down and fry on the other side for another minute.

Using a spatula tear the omelette into a pieces and fry until any remaining raw egg is gone.

Cook the pasta, adding the vegetables - for last 5 minutes bottom parts of asparagus, for last 3 minutes asparagus heads and for last minute peas.

Meanwhile mix olive oil with lemon zest, juice and mustard and warm through until smooth. Season with salt and pepper.

Drain the pasta and veg, adding 4 tbsp of the water to the sauce. Reheat the sauce, adding most of the chives (I cut them with scissors), add the pasta and veg to the sauce and toss everything together.

Divide between two plates or bowls and top each with some more chives and parmesan shavings. Sprinkle with some more pepper if required and serve immediately.

Friday, 7 May 2010

50g brown sugar 100g plain flour 60g melted unsalted butter handful of almond flakes 15g cinnamon sugar (you can make your own by putting whole cinnamon into a jar of sugar and keep closed for few weeks, instead you can use half tsp of ground cinnamon)

Keep the stock hot all the time. In a separate pan heat half of the butter, add the onion and fry very slowly for about 15 minutes without colouring until softened. Then add rice and turn up the heat.

Fry the rice, stirring all the time. After a minute it will look slightly translucent. Add the wine and lemon juice and keep stirring for minute, until alcohol will evaporate. Season with salt and pepper.

Once the wine has cooked into the rice, add a ladle of hot stock and turn down the heat to a simmer so the rice doesn’t cook too quickly on the outside. After 5 minutes add the bottom parts of asparagus - they need to boil little bit longer than tops. Keep adding ladlefuls of stock, stirring – you will notice a creamy starch from the rice. This is why you have to allow each ladleful to be absorbed before adding the next. This will take around 15-20 minutes, until the rice is cooked. For the last 5 minutes add lemon zest and asparagus tops. Asparagus heads are more delicate than the bottom parts and do not require long time to cook.

Remove from the heat and add the remaining butter and 2 tbsp parmesan. Stir well and allow to rest for 2 minutes – this will make risotto really creamy and oozy. Serve immediately (as risotto cannot be reheated!) sprinkled with the remaining parmesan cheese on top.

Monday, 3 May 2010

Preheat the oven to 200 C and meanwhile prepare the asparagus, by removing wooden ends. Pre-boil trimmed asparagus in a pan with salted water for about 2 minutes. Remove from the pan, rinse for about minute under a cold water and let it dry. Keep the water hot all the time.

Sprinkle each puff pastry strip with parmesan if using and wrap each asparagus in pastry. You can also brush the pastry with egg white and sprinkle with sea salt. Bake in the oven until crispy and golden.

I like to dip them in a runny egg yolk, so I separate egg yolks from the whites and place each yolk in the small bowls. Gently pour them into boiling water (the same that you used for boiling the asparagus) and poach for about 30 seconds. Drain with slotted spoon and serve immediately.